Best way to back up music files?

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Thump553

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Best way to back up music files?
« on: 16 Dec 2005, 04:16 pm »
Here's my situation:  I've been ripping, to FLAC files, most of my CDs.  I bought an external USB hard drive.  I'd like to have the music files on my home computer, office computer, and keep a backup somewhere (presumably the external HD).  All of the FLAC files are in the MY MUSIC folder in subfolders (artist, then album).

Is there an easy way to synchronize the backups and transfers from home to office?  So far, I'm been just copying my entire MY MUSIC folder each time I want to back up or transfer, but this seems like the long way to do it.

EDIT:  there is a sizeable amount of files so far, 80-100 gigs.

Folsom

Best way to back up music files?
« Reply #1 on: 16 Dec 2005, 07:28 pm »
I burned all of mine to DVD's.....That is backup.

I have no idea if it is possible but a raid setup that writes to two drives, over USB ? Raid function 1 right? The thing I am most unsure about is the ability of the drives to function when not hooked up in raid. I know with function 0 (I think) drives will not function unless you have both plugged into the same IDE cable as you did when you set them up.

nathanm

Best way to back up music files?
« Reply #2 on: 16 Dec 2005, 10:32 pm »
If you want an automated, incremental backup you would need software to do it.  Retrospect, or something like that.  It might be overkill for your application considering you are only concerned with the files already in a single folder and not scattered all over.  What you are already doing IS the easiest method, it just takes longer but you don't need to attend the computer while it's copying.  

A slightly more laborious but less copy-intensive method would be to sort the list by date modified and just manually copy newly-added files to the backup drive.  Much quicker than re-copying the whole 80-100gig each time.  However, I am not certain if the modification dates change when the files are played or not.  Still, I'd assume you have a mental recollection of what's new and what isn't.

Perhaps you could incorporate the backup into your ripping workflow and just remember to copy the files over as soon as they're done.

mgalusha

Best way to back up music files?
« Reply #3 on: 16 Dec 2005, 11:31 pm »
If you are using a Windows box you can download a utility from Microsoft for free called Robocopy. It stands for "Robust File Copy" and it will happily copy only new or changed files, making it much faster than a full copy. Just run it via the scheduler every so often and life is good. Or you can configure it to watch a direcotory tree and it will check at defined intervals and copy anything new it finds. Nearly real time mirroring and of course each drive is stand alone and not tied to any raid configuration.

For instance, point it at you music directory for the source and your USB drive for the destination and it will happily keep them in synch.

This does require a little work but the price is right and it's a very useful utility.

dogberry

Best way to back up music files?
« Reply #4 on: 17 Dec 2005, 12:25 am »
Write a batch file that includes the following command:

XCOPY <music dir>\*.* <external hd> /S/V/M

/S copies all subdirectories
/V verifies the copy
/M only copies if the archive bit is set and after a copy turns it off.

This way it will recurse all the subdirectories and only (after the first time) get any files that are new or have been changed.

Another option is to mirror your external to another external or set up a RAID, but that requires a RAID controller and now it's starting to get expensive.

If you have two copies, one on your HD and the other on an external, you should be pretty safe.

Burning to DVD can take a LOT of DVDs

lcrim

Best way to back up music files?
« Reply #5 on: 17 Dec 2005, 02:59 pm »
recurse?
damn